Topic: smart-city

Do cities always have to have cars, streets, and carbon emissions? Do they even need to have a roughly circular layout? Saudi Arabia’s future city “The Line” suggests a different approach.

To celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8^th, we are taking a closer look at what smart cities mean for women. Because one thing is clear: Cities are still not designed for women. Most planners and architects are male with a target group of men in mind. What does that mean for women? What could a more gender-inclusive city look like? And how can we get there?

We were lucky enough to listen to an exciting talk by Carlos Moreno at an event in Poznan in October 2022. After the event, we managed to have a quick chat with Carlos and discuss the 15-minute city concept and the future of smart and sustainable cities.

The Smart City Expo World Congress (#SCEWC22) in Barcelona is breaking all records, even before it begins! In its 11th edition, more than 24,000 visitors are expected to attend between November 15 and 17, 2022. More than 1,000 exhibitors will invite visitors to their booths and more than 400 experts will share their knowledge in an exciting lecture program. Under the motto "Cities inspired by people," the trade fair and the congress will be spread over two halls at the Fira Barcelona.

As part of the BBSR-funded project #connectedinEurope, six smart city peer-learning partnerships between German and European cities are being set up to promote knowledge transfer in smart city development and digital urban development to foster peer-to-peer learning. European and German cities can express their interest until 25 February 2022.

Asia is one of the most exciting continents on the planet, with rapidly evolving economies, fertile economic ecosystems, and bold leadership from proactive governments. But which cities are the smartest in the region? To get an idea, we’ve ranked the top smart cities in Asia using metrics from the IMD Smart Cities Index Report.

Michal Lakomski is the Mayor's Proxy for Smart City in the city of Poznan in the Greater Poland region. As the Mayor’s Smart City Proxy, and as the Director of Digitalization and Cybersecurity Department for Poznan City Hall, his role involves supervising and overseeing the city’s digital transformation and overall evolution into a modern smart city.

Under his leadership, Poznan has already made an impression as one of the most exciting and dynamic cities in Europe, embracing new technologies, supporting innovation, and putting its citizens first.

If you plan on providing your services to a government agency, there are a number of things you need to know. Depending on the size, scale, and cost of the project, there are different routes that prospective companies will have to navigate.

Tendering is a form of government procurement or purchasing that involves an authority inviting bidders to submit applications to provide their services. It’s a bidding process that involves government decision-makers selecting the most appropriate bid that provides the best and most cost-effective solution to a problem.

Artificial intelligence (AI) promises huge advantages for smart data processing and automation, potentially affecting every area of our daily lives and influencing the planning and implementation of smart city projects across all six fields of action; however, the creation of AI also poses some important questions. If we relinquish the administrative control of certain processes and services to AI, how can we ensure that they will be inclusive? What will the future labor market look like, and what implications will machine intelligence have for education? Policymakers in particular need to keep ahead of the curve and form a standard legal framework in order for cities to make the most of what AI has to offer.

Jamie Cudden is the leader of Dublin City Council’s Smart City program. The Smart City program focuses on embracing new technologies to solve the many challenges that the city faces to make Dublin a more liveable city for all of its residents. Using pioneering ideas, involving 5G, Internet of Things, and Big Data, Dublin’s Smart City program has been able to develop and deploy a wide range of solutions for challenges such as citizen engagement, sustainable mobility, energy management, and more.

Since Dublin is a prime example of a smart city in action (read our Smart Dublin City Portrait for more information), we decided to get in touch with Jamie and find out how he helped to steer Dublin into a smarter future.